Asking For It Read Online Free Page A

emotions: concern and suspicion, sympathy and fear. Why had he looked at her like that — almost as if he knew her? But he didn't know her. She was sure of that.
    "Okay, boys. You can go back to your tables." Arnie, to Kate's right, was talking to the campers who'd gathered around the scene.
    Kate shook her head and blinked, struggling to come out of her shock. Nothing like this had ever happened at Camp Wild Hills. "What do you think — ?"
    "First things first." The camp caretaker was handling the surprise far better than Kate. Speaking quietly, he gestured. "José, you grab his feet. I'll take his shoulders."
    "Wait." Kate came back to herself enough to ask. "What are you doing with him?"
    Arnie gave her a strange look as he crouched behind the unconscious man's shoulders. "Taking him to the infirmary." He huffed a laugh. "You wanted another warm body, didn't you? Huh. Looks like you got one."
    ~~~
    In the hall outside the infirmary, Kate leaned against the wall and tapped her fingertips on her crossed arms. Arnie and José were in there with their mystery guest, stripping him and looking for injuries. Kate stayed outside the room, reminded for one of the few times in recent memory that she was female.
    Finally, the door beside her cracked open. Arnie's head appeared. "You can come in now." He gave her a teasing smile. "He's decent."
    "Conscious?" Kate pushed off the wall.
    Arnie's smile dimmed as he shook his head. "No, not conscious, but come on in."
    Kate followed her groundskeeper into the clean, simple room. The man who'd stumbled into the dining hall lay on one of three cots. A gray army blanket was pulled to mid-chest, and a small pillow placed under his head. His eyes were closed but the slight arch of his eyebrows seemed to supplicate.
    She put a hand over her stomach as she remembered the way he'd slid down the doorjamb. A strong man, judging by his curving pectoral muscles, but now helpless.
    Purposefully, she turned away from the man and toward her teenage counselor. "Thank you so much for helping out," she told José. "But you'd better get back to your bunkhouse now. The kids are probably going wild with only Bill there."
    José grinned. "Not probably. Definitely. But I'm on it."
    Kate waited until José had trotted out of the room before turning to Arnie. She gestured toward the man on the bed. "He looks like he's in pain."
    "Could be. He's been worked over good, but nothing broken, so far as José or I could tell." Arnie tipped his head to regard the unconscious man. "Pulse is strong and steady. My guess he's either sleeping off the pain or he's been drugged."
    "Drugged!" Kate's eyebrows jumped.
    Arnie lifted his shoulders. "Don't know how else somebody managed to subdue him without hurting him worse."
    Drugs . Kate's teeth bit into her lower lip. "Do you think we ought to call an ambulance?"
    Arnie shot her a strange look.
    "What?"
    One side of Arnie's long mouth curved upward. "Nah, no ambulance. He just needs to sleep it off is all. An ambulance would be a big expense and unneeded drama."
    "Well..." Kate glanced toward their patient. "Maybe...the police?" She winced. Having the police show up would not help her licensing situation.
    But to her relief, Arnie shook his head again. "We don't have a wallet or anything even to identify him. So there's no point calling the police until he can wake up and tell them something."
    Was Arnie's reasoning specious? On the other hand, what could the police do until the man woke up? "But..." Kate slid Arnie a glance. "If we're not calling an ambulance and we're not calling the police, then...we're keeping him?"
    "Don't see how we have much choice. Guy wasn't helpful enough to give us a number to call before he passed out." The caretaker started smiling broadly. "Terrible, innit? To be stuck with this warm body to make us legal?"
    "Oh, please." Yes, they had another adult at the camp, somebody over eighteen years of age, but that was a technicality. "So, now what?" She